John Cullen, CPA, is a trained professional whose skill with matters mathematical cannot be denied.

When he’s not out on the golf course, the longtime accountant with Lank, Johnson & Tull can be found auditing such fine Cape Region institutions as the Rehoboth Beach Film Society.

Cullen’s undoubted talents in handling the challenges of the IRS Code had not translated to the golf course, however. He has played golf for more than 30 years, with nary a 1 on hundreds of scorecards - until Aug. 11, that is.

Playing with his usual Sunday gang, Cullen banged his nine-iron shot toward the flag on the 111-yard par 3 and saw his ball bounce twice. At that point, he couldn’t quite see it, and turned to his playing partners to ask.

All he saw at that point were a few gentlemen of a certain age whooping it up, high-fiving, and, most likely, thinking what they would order at the bar when they finished the round, thanks to Cullen’s hole in one.

One of these gentlemen, Rich Collins, recently scored a hole in one on the same hole. In proudly noting his friend Cullen’s accomplishment, Collins asked me what would be the odds of two regular Sunday round golf buddies scoring holes in one on the same hole within 30 days of each other.

I was thinking the odds would depend on the relative honesty of the players - but in the case of Cullen and Collins, we can also note that miracles can and do happen.

Local club competition results

The Rehoboth Beach Country Club 18 Hole Ladies Golf group held their annual two-day Member-Guest Tournament Aug. 6 and 7. Unfortunately, the round scheduled for Aug. 7 became a victim of the heavy weather.

This year’s tournament was themed August in Paris, which partially explains the interesting photograph of the gross winners, Joan Crowley, Sandy Bunting, Diane Herndon and Carole Ann Medd.

The overall champions were Carole Schagrin, Mary Ellen Gibson, Barbara Morgan and Carlyn Bryan, who also won first place in the second flight.

Elise Coar, Lou Ann Carlson, Tina Brinsfield and Joan Armstrong won the first flight, followed in second by the team of Barbara Collins, Denise Dickerson, Connie Cooper and Geri Vartabedian. Bailey Scheuer, Pressie Hoffman, Sally Fogarty and Nancy Carter took third.

The second-place spot in the second flight went to the team of Beth Forbes, Pat Sterling, Jeannie Lindsay and Eileen Kelly. Cyndy Simeone, Barbara Wisnieski, Linda Tigani and Susan Ponchock earned third-place honors.

The Kings Creek Country Club 18 Hole Ladies Golf League played Individual Net Stableford Aug. 8.

Cory Warther won first place in the first flight, followed by Vicki Tull in second and Faye Slatcher in third.

Rita Musi took the first spot in the second flight, with Barb Hines in second and Julie Dickson coming in third.

Joanne Yurik finished in first place in the third flight, while Amy Micholas won second place and Prabha Karapurkar finished third.

Sheree Mixell won the closest to the pin contest for the day on the 11th hole, with a great shot that finished only 2-feet-3-inches away.

A round with the coach

I ran into Cape Henlopen High School golf coach Claudio Smarrelli the other evening, just as I was about to play nine holes at Rookery North. He readily agreed to join me.

For all the years we’ve known each other from his coaching years at Cape, we’d never played golf together.

Smarrelli politely refrained from giving me tips, other than to note a certain flying right elbow tendency. On the other hand, I couldn’t help noticing how his tee shots flew straight and steady down the middle of each fairway.

After hitting yet another low-punched six-iron shot from underneath tree branches, I suggested that perhaps Coach did not have enough of a sense of adventure. He grinned broadly.

We tied at the end of our nine, with respectable scores. We also agreed to meet again under similarly pleasant circumstances.

Gross winners were (l-r) Joan Crowley, Sandy Bunting, Diane Herndon and Carole Ann Medd. The theme was August in Paris. Of course it was.
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John Cullen is shown at the scene of his first hole in one, Aug. 11, at the 111-yard par 3 13th hole at Rookery North.
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A few weeks ago, longtime Cape Region golfer Rich Collins scored a hole in one on the par-3 13th hole at Rookery North. He was a bit late sending in the commemorative photo, but here he is in all his glory.
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